Dermot Gallagher has avoided pinning blame on Tyrone Mings after the Aston Villa defender caught Nelson Oliveira’s face with his studs in the 0-0 draw against Reading on Saturday.
Oliveira was left with a serious facial injury after the bottom of Mings’ foot made impact with the Royals forward while he was on the ground in the Madejski Stadium clash.
Gallagher believes that only the new Villa defender will know for sure whether or not it was intentional.
“Tough call. Only Mings knows if it was deliberate,” said Gallagher on the Sky Sports website.
“In these instances, the only person that knows whether the act is intentional is the player that’s involved – he’s the only one that knows what’s going through his head. The FA will look at it but will have to make that judgment – what was in the player’s mind? Did he try to get over him? Only Mings knows the real truth.”
OPINION
Mings surely knew what he was doing. Not only does the 25-year-old have history of stamping after he was banned for five-games for a similar incident involved Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2017, but it is pretty clear that he knew what he was doing. Mings could definitely have avoided Oliveira’s head. He appeared to look down before placing his foot and he was hardly running at full pelt. We are talking about a professional athlete here – he knows where he is putting his feet and he has the ability to move his body. Oliveira will probably have scarring on his face after the wounds heal that could stick with him for the rest of his life. The Portuguese forward should be pushing for Mings to be punished because it only seems to be Villa fans who are jumping to the defence of Mings on social media. Fair enough he’s their play but come on, there is surely some intent involved in this.